260998 - Antique Rare terracotta Funerary Dakakari sculpture - Nigeria

€325.00

RARE ANCIENT FUNERARY DAKAKARI TERRACOTTA - NIGERIA.

This sculpture are 39 cm in height and weight 4.5 kilo.

This one has been excavated, so parts of the body are missing. These statues have been buried under agricultural fields for hundreds of years and have all been damaged by tilling the fields or during excavations.
This unique offering is from an ancient African culture. The Dakari are a small ethnic group in the hills of the Zuru Federation in the North-Western State of Nigeria. This piece is between 100 to 300 years old. The figures were made by the women and placed on top of the grave site mounds. The faces all bore the typical open mouth as if mourning or moaning for the deceased.
The Dakakari made clay sculptures that they placed on their graves. It was customary to seal the graves with clay slabs.

For dignitaries, more elaborate sculptures allowed them to identify the locations for contemplation. The themes depicted are usually the same among the Dakakari: the rider and his horse, animals such as the hyene or the camel, and sometimes a nude figure, "the companion of the deceased in the afterlife." The working style can sometimes vary by region, depending on the clay used or the firing techniques. Dakakari graves are distinguished by figurative and non-figurative pots, as well as by usable containers. Upon the death of a new family member, a sculpture or ceramic pot is added to the pottery objects marking the grave site. Bright orange engobe. Very good condition.